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Thursday March 31, 2011

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A tale of two Syrias

Syria had been largely unaffected by the protest movement sweeping the Arab world. Until two weeks ago. That's when protests sprung up in the southern part of the country. Then on Friday security forces opened fire on protestors in the town of Daraa. Western human rights groups say as many as 60 people were killed. President Bashar Al-Assad spoke Wednesday to express grief for the relatives of the people who died. But he says it is up to Syrians to stop the protests. Many of the thirteen million Syrians living outside Syria support the regime. Wednesday night, several hundred Syrian-Montrealers gathered downtown to show their support for president Bashar Al-Assad. Albert Rezko was there. Afra Jalabi was at the gathering too, but for a different reason. She's pushing for an overhaul to the regime that's been in place for the last 40 years.